Celtine wrote to him.He wanted to tell her it wasn"t really her fault but he felt that talking right now would probably be a bad idea.
"Why is everyone still standing? Am I looking at a bunch of boorish death seekers or young n.o.bles? Everybody stop dawdling and take a seat. Boys on the left and girls on the right."
Everybody took a seat were they could and what Emp a.s.sumed to be the teacher stepped in front of the room. Only the slaves remained standing behind their masters. Once again, Rica seemed distraught to be separated from her lover and the best they could do was sit on either side of the central alley. The teacher cleared her throat with a wispy cough and proceeded to introduce herself.
"I am countess Giselle Blackbull. I was tasked with the arduous challenge of remaking you into proud and elegant members of our society. My cla.s.ses, more than those of anyone else, will be the ones you either appreciate the most or the ones you dread the most. I am very conscious of this but I will drill manners into your young heads however much you dislike my teachings or myself.
The simple truth is that unlike most of the practical skill cla.s.ses given by this old establishment, mine is the only one you can"t escape. Having no talent in riding, magic or archery can be compensated by other skills but there is no excuse to the bad image you could give yourself, your family or our nation. I will not tolerate any rudeness in this room and punishments will be dealt to those who think that bad demeanor could be overlooked. I will keep you here for as long as it takes for me to make sure that wherever you end up in the future, you will not shame my teachings or this school. Did I make myself understood?"
After everyone agreed, she followed up.
"This old lady may seem intimidating to you but I have lived for a long time. My patience for tomfooleries was exhausted many years ago. Threat me with respect and the same will be delivered to you."
She took a short breath to let her words sink in before following up.
"Now then, on to the main subjects. You may have noticed that there are many cla.s.ses which I am in charge of in your schedules. You might as well forget all their names, for me, they can all be cla.s.sified as "how to exhibit a decent behavior". As such, the contents of the cla.s.ses will be subject to changes and any morals, etiquette, or any other under my rule, might be replaced by what I believe you need the most at the moment. Today, it seems I need to focus on four things, you, you, how to greet someone of a higher rank than you and how to sit properly."
She finished by pointing Emp, Josseline and then the rest of the cla.s.s. Before she could explain what she meant, Heida rose from her seat and pointed her finger straight at the old teacher.
"Are you insinuating that you are higher ranked than me? You"re just a countess!"
From what Emp understood counts were quite highly ranked, just bellow dukes and those were usually close family to royalty. Did that mean that Heida was at least a d.u.c.h.ess?
"Young miss, first off all, pointing your finger at someone is very inappropriate. Secondly, while in my cla.s.s, none of your ranks matter. In this small room, I am the teacher, the highest authority. This school exist by the will of the emperor and my task is to guide you. Whoever you might be outside of those wall have no value here. Threatening me with the t.i.tles of your parents, be they royals or lowly peasants will have no effect on me. An old lady like me does not fear death, even less so if the treat comes from the mouth of an unmannered youngling."
Heida made a growl and a pout but still sat back down in frustration instead of braving her piercing gaze any longer.
"Now that this is settled, it"s time to correct your behavior young poorly dressed lady. What might be your name?"
"Uhm, Josseline." She hesitated a bit before answering but still complied since it was obvious who the teacher was talking about.
The old Giselle looked at some papers on her desk and talked again after she found what she was looking for.
"You are not on the list of people with whom I might have trouble with. What could possibly have compelled you to dress in such a way and try to seduce young Mr. Glavan here?"
"Why not? He seems strong enough."
"Is this really the only reason?"
"Yes...?"
"It"s because she said she didn"t have to fight anything if her husband was reliable." Intervened Brenia. "Then we pointed out that she didn"t have a husband."
"I see..." Said Giselle. "You were overeager to fix your problem and thought that any of the boys here would do since they are in this establishment after all. Isn"t that right?"
Josseline made a small nod.
"Mother told me to find myself a husband while here."
"But your methods are wrong and unfit of a lady. What is more, many of the ladies here won"t have your freedom of choice yet you are wasting it. Instead of making a clearheaded decision you just went fis.h.i.+ng and tried to reel in whatever was biting. I do not mean to speak badly of Oran Glavan but do you know anything about him?"
Josseline shook her head in disappointment.
"Do you know anything about any of the boys present here?"
She shook her head again.
"Haste will only lead you to regret, you have a lot to learn on the subject it seems. First of all, never invest your time or feelings in someone who hasn"t got his first kill yet! It is something everyone says but so many still fall for that trap just because the boy who took their heart seems promising. I am speaking from experience.
My first fiance was chosen by my parents, he was tall and muscled, confident and proud, my young self instantly fell for him. He went on a hunt to gain his first kill two years after we had met. Turns out he didn"t know how to use a sword properly, the blade got stuck between the scales of a rock shredder and he died despite the intervention of his escort.
I was heartbroken and so much of my youth had been wasted on a relations.h.i.+p that went nowhere. We do not stay young forever, the more you wait to find a husband, the harder it gets, yet, if you are too hasty, you end up losing even more of your time or worse, you end up making a wrong choice you will regret for a long time to come. Not many n.o.ble ladies have the power of choice so do not waste it, you need to take your time and pick the best one for yourself, raw strength is not the only quality you need to be looking for."
"I thought every girl could choose who they wanted, is it reversed for n.o.ble and the guys choose instead?" Asked Cyril.
Emp didn"t understand either and was glad someone asked instead of him.
"What might be your name young lad?"
"Cyril Lowfield madam."
She looked again at her papers and nodded in comprehension.
"I see you are a lowborn with potential, you are on my list."
Cyril was the son of a farmer from the north of the kingdom and his whole village came together to pay the entrance fee for him. It was obvious he wouldn"t know about a lot of the customs of n.o.bles.
"You are correct Mr. Lowfield, ordinary girls all have the power to choose whomever they want. They can present themselves to absolutely anyone from a prince all the way down to a simple slave. All the chosen man as to do is answer yes or no but most n.o.bles don"t work like that.
When a girl is grown enough, the whole house will come together and decide which other n.o.ble houses they would need to strengthen their bonds with. Having relatives across the land can be the deciding factors in both arguments and wars. For a n.o.ble lady, a marriage isn"t only for her sake but for the sake of her whole family instead.
Sometimes, the young lady gets to choose between many young man carefully selected, sometimes, she gets no choice at all and rarely, you get someone like Josseline here who escapes that fate. Did this help your understanding for now?"
He nodded and the old teacher entered the closing part of her speech to Josseline.
"Listen, from now on, you will wear descent clothing when coming here, I won"t accept any fad going through the streets of this city. I hope you will listen well to my teachings and learn how to court a man properly as well as choose one with more insight. Just by curiosity, how many girls of n.o.ble descent here were told they would get to choose on their own?"
A few hands raised, Mable, Gytha, Heida and Josseline of course. This wasn"t many at all, not even half of the girls. The rest were either not n.o.bles, like Brenia or didn"t get to choose, like Aglaya apparently. This was surprising to Emp. By the way Chinui had explained it, he felt like it should have been the opposite and more were able to choose than not. Maybe it was just another thing the Muraciers didn"t do like the rest.
"And of the four of you, how many expect to actually get to choose?"
Mable and Gytha lowered their hands dejectedly. Heida smiled in triumph as if her raised hand put her above the rest but Josseline seemed to be embarra.s.sed instead to be such a special case.
"You see now how rare it is to choose for ourselves? I urge you to not waste this opportunity, doing so would gain you the scorn of every woman present here."
The girl lowered her head in shame.
"As for the two who lowered their hands, do not be so sad, this old lady as lived for a long time and know many a trick to steer everything towards the path, and the man, you want. I will be teaching you all of this too."
Now that the topic was closed and some hope returned to the girls, the teacher turned towards her next victim, Emp.
"You are Emp, am I correct?"
"Yes." How did she know?
"You are on my list, in fact, the duke Jasay personally came to tell me that you might as well have been raised by a pack of wolves."
Many had a hard time to keep in their laughter, Aglaya even had to block Mable"s mouth to stop her from bursting.
"You are at the very top of my list, you are the one I expect the most trouble from."
Emp did not think he was that troublesome though.
"When I came in, you had that girl on your shoulders, I would have scolded you for that but you swiftly put her down."
He had done the right thing, he would dodge a scolding.
"That is even worse, this means you knew this was bad manners but you did it anyway!"
Oh...
"It might be fine for a children"s game but even a married couple would not walk around like that in public! What is wrong with your head young man?"
"I just don"t like to have her walk."
She frowned more deeply waiting for a better explanation.
"The girl is a winged cursed-blood that lost her wings." Intervened Kenneth "She can"t walk properly on her own."
"How about a cane then instead of carrying her around like a hoodlum?" She said while waving her own in front of his eyes.
Emp imagined Celtine with a cane and almost immediately shook his head.
"How would she speak then?" That and also it looked ridiculous in his head.
"What does that have to do with speaking?"
"She is mute as well, if she had a cane in her hands, she wouldn"t be able to write properly."
Celtine presented her quill and tablet to the teacher and she gave him an appalled look.
"From just this I can already guess your answer but, she is a slave right? If I was to tell you to get rid of the useless one to buy a more practical one, you would vehemently disagree."
Celtine hid herself behind Emp to escape her while he answered.
"Yes, I think I would."
"I can already tell, you will be the one to drive me insane. I have a lot to say about why what you are doing is inappropriate but I will keep it for after cla.s.s because I have more things to teach today and I doubt anyone here would do the same as you."
After that, they had a long morning dedicated on how to sit properly and an introduction to greetings. The others were dismissed for the noon break but Emp was forced to stay in order to learn exactly why carrying Celtine the way he did was wrong. He would have never thought the reasons could be so numerous. He was very glad Celtine was here to write down everything Giselle had said since the start of the cla.s.s. Remembering it all would be easy.
"So, in light of all this, what will you do from now on?" Asked the inquisitive teacher.
"You told me many reasons as to why I should not carry her on my shoulder but you did not bring any alternatives. As long as I haven"t found a way to restore her wings, carrying her on my shoulder remains the best way on a practical standpoint."
The teacher, Emp and his two slaves all looked blankly at each other for a moment before Giselle grabbed her forehead with her hand and released a long sight while ma.s.saging it.
"I see now why the ancient said that with a big smile. You are a Muracier aren"t you?"
Emp tried to remain calm despite his surprise because of what the duke had asked of him but his two slaves pretty much sold him out with their overly surprised expressions.
"There is no way you would be able to speak the n.o.ble tongue this fluently if not. No other house would answer all this scolding about social standards by denying it because of something as trivial as practicality. From which one are you then? One of the two brothers, Graube or a lesser branch?"
"The ancient told me not to talk about the Muraciers." Answered Emp hesitantly.
The answer seemed to displease the old lady who groaned and gripped her face with both hands as if to escape from his answer.
"One of the two brothers then, probably the great general himself. I should have known from the start with how much alike you three all look."
Emp was Impressed, even though this wasn"t really the truth because he had been created by G.o.ds, Chinui was the closest thing he would get from a human parent and also who everyone else believed was his father. She was really good at guessing. He was also feeling nervous about the fact that the secret had been exposed so soon, the ancient would probably get very angry.
Aside from that, it wasn"t the first time someone told him he looked like them or acted like them. Was he that similar? He had not felt this way at all in the time he spent with Chinui. She continued to talk with her eyes closed and her fingers rubbing her temples.
"Look, if you wanted to keep it secret, your answer was the worst possible one. If someone orders you to not reveal your ident.i.ty, it can only mean that you have either the highest or the lowest spot. If you were from a far off branch, the ancient wouldn"t be acting that way, this can only mean you are the heir. You will have to come up with a better answer than that next time, rather, I will have to teach you a better answer won"t I? It"s going to be the same all over again.
I still remember the headaches those two gave me when they were students here. I had to give them both private cla.s.ses all the time because they refused to listen to anything I had to say. When I finally managed to carve manners into their brains and get them out of my sight I was so glad I wouldn"t have to hear them say all the time that what I was teaching was useless on a battlefield."
Emp thought it was funny because not only did it sound like Chinui, it also sounded exactly like what Brenia was complaining about the previous day. He tried to comfort her a bit with words. He really did need her help, even though they were in disagreement over Celtine.
"Your teachings may not be useful on a battlefield but they are in every other situations correct? In that case, I am very willing to listen. He only thought me how to fight and survive alone so there is much I do not know. If you would please help me learn everything, I would be thankful."
"You say that but you were unwilling to listen just moments ago."
"Yes, I did disagree but it does not mean I did not listen, Celtine wrote down everything you said as well. Believe me, aside from carrying Celtine like I do, I will try to behave to the best of my knowledge."
"Well, I have no choice but to teach you so I will. We"ll see if you can keep to your words. In the meantime, I believe I have a word to say to the ancient."
After that, she told him he could leave for now and once outside of the room, he let Celtine climb back on his shoulders.
"Master, you told her it"s more practical to carry Celtine like that but master also told the others that it pained you to look at her walk." Harriett said as they were walking.
Emp waited for her to continue but she didn"t. Since it annoyed him to not know what she meant to say exactly, he was forced to ask.
"Yes both are true, is there a follow up to that sentence?"
"I was just wandering if maybe there was another reason. I have been trying my best to find out what you enjoy and what you dislike since I became yours. I"ve been having a hard time finding anything, master just goes along with whatever I cook and never tells if it was better this time or last time, you never make any comments on clothes or colors or the furniture I helped master choose, it"s like anything would do for master."
Was this the truth? Emp started pondering about it. Things he liked and disliked. There were some obvious things he understood like how he didn"t like feeling pain or liked to win a fight but he had a hard time figuring out if he really liked or disliked anything else. Sure, sometimes he could tell when he didn"t dislike something but did it mean he liked it or just that he didn"t dislike it?
"How do you know if you like or dislike something?"
"Master, what sort of question is that?"
Harriett was taken aback by his question. It was clearly showing on her face that she didn"t understand what he meant. He still thought that his question was pretty clear though.
"I can see when other people like or dislike things by their smile and frown but how do I know for myself?"
"Isn"t it supposed to be easier? I am very sorry master, I do not understand what you are having a hard time about. How can we even explain that kind of thing. If it pains you to see Celtine walk for example, should it not be obvious that you dislike it? How would you explain something you like Celtine?"
Celtine wrote to them It must have shown on his face that he had a hard time understanding because Harriett did her best to clarify it for him a bit.
"Master, do you sometimes think you would want to eat more of something, or see someone again soon? Something you look forward to."
As they went back to his room to change into something appropriate for the training field, they talked more about this and Emp, after much thinking and remembering, managed to understand a bit of what they meant. He still was unsure if this was the right way to go about it but he had managed to make a small list based on their explanation.
He disliked to eat fish, strange clothes, clothing stores, not understanding something, sleeping for too long and seeing other people hurt. He liked to see others smile, to complete tasks, look at new landscapes and possibly a thick stew with a lot of meat and turnips.
That seemed like an odd mix, there was probably something wrong with his understanding.
"Maybe master just appreciate human contact." Harriett offered as an answer.
How was he to know for sure? Maybe he did like and disliked more things but he didn"t notice.
They had been immersed in that discussion for so long that when he left with Celtine for the next cla.s.s, he had forgotten what they were talking about in the first place. Harriett stayed behind to do some sh.o.r.es and the subject was buried.